Justification of resources

We need to enable reviewers to make an informed judgement on whether the resources requested are appropriate for the research proposed.

The resources and costs section of your proposal should explain why the resources requested are appropriate for the research proposed taking into account the nature and complexity of the research.

It should not simply be a list of the resources required but should justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

• project staff
• significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
• any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
• any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
• all facilities and infrastructure costs
• all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:

• are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
• represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
• maximise potential outcomes and impacts

The overall costs captured in the Funding Service are at the higher fund heading level but the narrative text box is where you can tell us more about what you will be using the funds for and to justify their requirement.

Any proposals requesting items that would ordinarily be found in a department, for example non-specialist computers, should include justification both for why they are required for the project and why they cannot be provided from the research organisation’s own resources (including funding from Indirect costs from grants).

Staff posts

Justification needed

Justify why a post is needed for the proposed work, and why the proposed time input is appropriate.

Questions to consider

Is the work of appropriate scientific content or technical difficulty to warrant employing the post at the requested level?

Project Lead (PL) and project co-lead (Pc-L) time

Justification needed

Justify the time the PL and PcL spends on the grant. A PL or PcL cannot request time for supervising postgraduate research students, writing after the end of the project, writing grant applications, or peer review.

Questions to consider

You should consider the following:

• how much time do you intend to dedicate to the project?
• will you be doing all the research yourself?
• what work packages are the PL and PcLs involved with and why?
• have you factored in enough time to work with project partners, or visiting researchers and other collaborators?
• are you only managing the staff on the project?

Travel and subsistence

Justification needed

Provide a breakdown of costs in the system form, for example how many people are travelling, where they are going and why.

Questions to consider

If you are planning to visit people to discuss your research, you should explain why those are the right people to talk to and how they can contribute to you meeting your objectives.

If you plan to attend conferences, you should comment on the advantages of conference attendance and give an indication of the number you want to attend during the grant, who will attend these and the type you want to go to such as national, international, general or subject specific.

Travel costs incurred when using facilities should be included where necessary.

Other directly incurred costs

Justification needed

Give a description of what has been requested and why. Every item requested must be justified.

Questions to consider and answer in the case for support

You must justify the need for any equipment requested.

Find out more about the justification of equipment and utilisation of capital assets.

Other directly allocated costs

Justification needed

In some cases, such as use of internal facilities and shared staff costs, the basis of the costing doesn’t need to be justified, but the need for the resource does.

Questions to consider

You need to explain what these resources are and why you need to use them.

Other directly allocated research facilities (at research organisations)

Justification needed

You only need to justify time.

Questions to consider

Explain what you are using the facility for and why you need to use this particular facility.

Other directly allocated pooled technicians

For example workshop or laboratory technicians based at the university – usually not named.

Questions to consider

Explain why you are using a pooled technician and justify the amount of resource requested.

Other directly allocated infrastructure technicians

Justification needed

Cost should be displayed separately to Estate and Indirect costs and should be included in in the other directly allocated “other” costs box. This cost does not need to be justified.

Directly allocated estates

Do not need to be justified.

Indirect costs

Do not need to be justified.

Last updated: 22 November 2024